Details released on massive child porn bust; suspect released on bond - East Idaho News
Crime Watch

Details released on massive child porn bust; suspect released on bond

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IDAHO FALLS — Investigators say a local suspect was distributing child pornography with victims as young as a couple months.

Stanley G. Gallegos, 60, was arrested Wednesday after federal agents searched his home. They said they discovered a massive amount of child pornography on several multi-terabyte hard drives. Investigators also said there was so much pornography, it would take thousands of man hours to catalog all of the photos and videos.

Gallegos, of Idaho Falls, initially denied he was distributing child pornography, according to court documents. However, he was charged with four felony counts of possession of child pornography and one felony count of distributing child pornography. He posted a $100,000 bond Friday and was released from the Bonneville County Jail to pre-trial services.

The investigation into Gallegos began in Moscow, Idaho. Detective Eric Kjorness with the Moscow Police Department and a member of the Internet Crimes Against Child task force, downloaded 112 files containing child pornography from a single local IP source address. That address was later discovered to be associated with a Cable One account registered to Gallegos.

That led to a search warrant of Gallegos’ home by the ICAC task force. Upon searching the house the task force discovered what they describe as a “sophisticated computer system that was all linked to one main server,” according to court documents.

It will likely take over a year just to analyze and complete a report documenting all the images and videos that were located in Gallegos’ home.

Agents seized several hard drives, jump drives, laptop computers, iPads, tablets and smartphones, according to court records.

Most disturbing, connected to Gallegos’ server were approximately 10 hard drives, each containing several terabytes of data, holding potentially millions of photos and thousands of videos of children performing heinous sexual acts. Those videos and photos were available for download or to be shared on an open BitTorrent peer-to-peer network.

Because of the enormous size of file storage and the sophisticated nature of Gallegos’ computer system, investigators say it was impossible to review all of it on site. Forensic examiners estimated it would likely take over a year just to analyze and complete a report documenting all the images and videos that were located in Gallegos’ home.

Agents who searched Gallegos’ home downloaded two of what investigators said is potentially thousands of folders onsite. Those two folders contained 278 videos and 3,052 photos, all containing explicit material of children. Investigators called the images and videos “extremely graphic in nature.”

The estimated age range of children in the videos range from a couple months old to 14 years old. Many of the videos were children engaging is sexual acts with other children, often with the assistance of an adult. Other videos involved adults and children.

In Gallegos’ basement, where his computer equipment was stored, investigators also seized 193 homemade DVDs, though Gallegos is not believed to have produced the content. A random review of 10 of those DVDs showed that nine contained child pornography.

Before he was placed under arrest, Gallegos made comments to police about ending his life using a firearm. Investigators noted that he does, in fact, own two firearms and that he would have access to those if released from jail.

Gallegos is due back in court April 12 for a preliminary hearing.

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